Weekly Impact Brief (2023.Dec.10)
New business building and innovation as competitive advantages; five people leaders need to know; the four-day workweek.
Note: We are in private beta. There are rough edges; this Brief will evolve in the coming weeks before we launch more broadly. We value your feedback! To share your input, click here.
Read time: 4 min
Welcome
It’s great to have you here!
This Brief offers leaders quick, fact-driven insights on trending articles released in the last week around leadership, innovation, and more. These are curated from top sources, such as McKinsey, Harvard, and many others, looking at elements of the Impactful Framework.
In case you missed the last Impact Briefs, here are the links for the previous two:
Thought Starter
Last week, we covered the element of “Management”; this week, we cover “Culture”.
Highlights
McKinsey & Company: New-business building: A winning strategy in uncertain times
Forbes: 5 Types Of People You Need In Your Network To Build Leadership Skills
Josh Bersin: The Four-Day Work Week: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
[Feature] BCG: An Innovation Culture that gets results
Impact Pulse
Each week, we review 200+ articles from 50+ premier academic and consulting firm sources to highlight a few “essentials” below.
New-business building: A winning strategy in uncertain times
Big Idea: Companies that build new businesses amid economic uncertainty through embracing AI, everything-as-a-service models, controlling the value chain, going green, and leveraging data tend to outperform peers in revenue growth and earnings.
Quick Quote(s): "In today’s uncertain economic and geopolitical climate, playing offense—in combination with playing defense—is competitively advantageous and critical for long-term success… Companies whose leaders understand the importance of maintaining an offense-oriented posture, can manage the risk, and have the skills and focus to execute should prioritize business building."
5 Types Of People You Need In Your Network To Build Leadership Skills
Big Idea: To become an effective leader, you need to add five types of people to your professional network: mentors who can guide you, coaches who can empower you, industry peers who can collaborate with you, industry thought leaders who can keep you updated on trends, and emerging talent who can challenge outdated thinking.
Quick Quote(s): "Unfortunately, many leaders are "accidental," with more than 80% of them having been promoted to management through their high performance and budding potential, essentially learning on the job and copying the leadership styles and mistakes of their previous bosses… Having the right mentors, coaches, peers, thought leaders, and next generation talent in your network is critical for developing effective leadership skills, avoiding common leadership pitfalls, staying innovative, and ultimately creating healthier and more successful work environments."
The Four-Day Work Week: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Big Idea: Research shows that implementing a 4-day work week under the right conditions - like focusing on productivity, flexibility and accountability - can improve employee health, increase revenue and profit, reduce sick days and turnover, and better serve customers.
Quick Quote(s): "When implemented well, work-time reduction (many versions: 6-hour workdays, half-day Fridays, 9-day fortnights) encourages companies to be more efficient, it gives people a more flexible and fulfilling life, and it forces the company to focus… Employee engagement goes up and both revenue and profitability increased… If we reduce the time available, we surprise ourselves with how much we’re able to complete. And removing excess time spent on administrative or “unproductive” tasks frees up tangible hours to put back into quality, productive work."
Featured Summary
Below are our featured insights for the week: BCG discusses how to build an innovation culture that drives results.
An Innovation Culture That Gets Results
Big Idea: Companies should increase investment in innovation even during volatile times, as those with strong innovation cultures that embrace risk, collaboration, and autonomy tend to significantly outperform peers. Building an innovation culture requires clearly articulating desired behaviors, activating them through leaders who role model them, and structurally embedding them into the operating model.
Quick Quote(s): "By focusing intently on these three areas—articulating, activating, and embedding the right behaviors—you’ll be able to establish the best possible conditions for creating, teaming, leading, and celebrating innovation."
Parting Thoughts
Thank you for spending your precious time with us.
We are still in early “beta” mode for the coming weeks. If you find this Brief useful, please forward it now!
Please feel free to reach out with any thoughts or questions that today’s insights might have sparked.
Impactfully yours,
Ali Monadjem (LinkedIn profile)
For The Impactful Executive Team
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